Daily details from the garden to bring you inspiration throughout the year
Spurges generally don’t get to come into the house. They’re great in the garden – the architectural form of Euphorbia characias with its wonderful glaucous foliage, the little milkweeds (Euphorbia peplus) that spring up everywhere with little encouragement, the zingy freshness of the cushion spurge Euphorbia polychroma – all flowering with a zesty burst of chartreuse which is seen nowhere else but on the flowers of lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis). But over Christmas, we welcome the poinsettia (Cuetlaxochitl to the Aztecs, ‘Flor de Nochebuena’, or the Christmas Eve Flower in Mexico and Guatemala) into our homes, wearing its flame red bracts as a subterfuge in an attempt to obfuscate its kinship. But Euphorbia pulcherrima is as much a spurge as the afore mentioned, sharing the irritant, latex sap and the propensity for people to mistake the bracts surrounding its oddly naked flowers for brightly coloured petals. Still other spurges, mistaken for cacti (Euphorbia trigona, for example) have yet to be added to the indoor jungle. Perhaps that can be my first resolution for the new year.
A year of garden coaching
To find out more about my my 12 month online garden coaching programme, please visit the website, where you can read more details and add your name to the waiting list to be the first to hear when enrollment opens up again tomorrow!
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, blogger, podcaster, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking the image above.
